Jake Long still holding up the tackle market

Tackle Jake Long, the No. 1 pick in the 2008 NFL draft, made a quick trip to St. Louis once the free-agency period opened. Since then, there has been nothing quick about Long’s search for a new job.

After an extended visit with the Rams, Long left without a contract. Multiple reports indicate that he’s now weighing roughly equivalent offers from the Rams and the Dolphins.

The Eagles also were believed to be interested in Long; given the manner in which Philly came out of nowhere to snag cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha in 2011, it’s impossible to rule them out.

Regardless of where Long lands, he has created a bottleneck for tackles like Andre Smith and Sebastian Vollmer. All three are represented by CAA, and it’s clear that the plan is to let Long set the ceiling for the others.

On the first day of free agency, former Saints left tackle Jermon Bushrod did a five-year, $35.965 million deal with the Bears. That’s an average of $7.193 million per year, surely less than what Long is looking for.

If the Eagles want him then they will get him. Thats how we do it round here. Chip Kelly and his world domination tour 2013 is gearing up and you will all behold his 11 headed offensive monster machine. And theres simply nothing that you can do about it.

I am a life long eagles fan and flavordave is a disgrace…I like the direction the eagles are going…they had alot of holes to fill and haven’t had a high draft pick since Donovan…this is a rebuilding year no way around it and 90% of eagles fans realize it…..it’s the morons like flavordave that reflect poorly on us

Why don’t the Bears keep the splash going, add Jake Long, move Bushrod to RT and J’Marcus Webb to guard? Seems like the best way to maximize each player anyway and would (finally) allow the team to run a competent offense.

This free agent class was a perfect recipe to jack up how agents held players out for deals. It was the perfect money ball setting, and there wasn’t a player nearly good enough to give them an insane contract. Big contracts ruin team, the NFL has the fairest salary cap of any sport. Signing a guy to an insane contract is a recipe for disaster no matter how good they are. It’s the same reason Arizona stinks, Detroit and New Orleans were overrated. They severely overpay 1 or 2 players and don’t have the cap space to add productive players across the board. As good as Calvin Johnson, Larry Fitzgerald, and Drew Brees are they’re just 1 player. Teams can’t afford to make those types of mistakes. This isn’t the NBA where you can get around cap as long as you are willing to pay. There’s a fixed cap, no ifs or buts, and more importantly how your team structure the contract is just as important. Restructuring only delays the inevitable and dead money cripples how a team can operate with it’s allotted cap space.